“Cory, I’ve always been curious, but why do you have so many blankets? You have a bunch of different types, too.”
Cory’s eyes blinked open as he stared at the blanket on him as he listened.
“Oh.”
Cory quietly muttered, seemingly understanding my question.
Until now, I had seen dozens of different blankets that Cory owned. Starting from the strawberry blanket, there was also the grape blanket, the pineapple blanket, the apple one, and a ton of other fruit ones. I thought he only had fruit blankets, but he also had vegetable ones too. Who owned a cabbage blanket? Oh, he also had a carrot one, didn’t he?
“You know how I’m a picky eater. And I like eating snacks.”
Cory explained, half asleep. He spoke slowly, probably because he was about to fall back asleep.
“My parents wanted me to get a friendly outlook on healthy foods even if I chose not to eat them, so they gifted me fruit or veggie blankets. And I just ended up having a bunch of them.”
I didn’t know until now, but it was quite a cute reason. It seemed like Cory’s parents’ efforts payed off in the end. Cory did eat a tiny but consistent amount of fruits and vegetables.
He did pinch his nose as he ate vegetable though. No, never mind, he did that when he was younger. Recently, he created a spell that would make vegetables tasteless and scentless. He was eating properly thanks to that.
I asked Cory why he was receiving blankets as gifts instead of any other kind of product in the world. He explained that it was probably because of his tendency to fall asleep in fandom places. It seemed like Cory’s kindness stemmed from his parents.
But it was strange. His parents left him alone to the point of it almost being neglectful, from what I knew. He was always alone during birthdays so I hung out with him, and whenever I called Cory’s home, they never responded.
“Cory, there’s apparently a new delivery place open. Let’s get some food from there once.”
“Oh, I don’t eat that kind of….. frog…… but it was cool……”
“Huh?”
“…..huh? Sorry, what did you say?”
“You’re really sleepy, huh.”
Cory slowly nodded.
“Go back to sleep.”
“…..thanks.”
The room was quiet. I could hear Cory’s quiet breaths as he slept.
Hearing that made me feel relaxed, so I closed my eyes too. I fell asleep almost instantly. It must’ve been a mix of everything that had happened recently, but the nap I had just taken was absolutely perfect.
Cory woke me up before our next class started. He wiped the drool on my cheek and popped a candy in my mouth as he got me ready to head back to class. I was very reluctant about the whole thing.
I was so sleepy and relaxed that I felt like I was floating.
I met up three times a week with Yves. He complained that he never got to see me naturally, so he made it a point to meet with me at least three times a week.
The reason for meeting was a simple request. He asked me if I didn’t want to make some quick cash, and gave me small tasks that I could do even within school.
There was a small gazebo a bit further away from the dorms that was made for students. It was a bit tucked away, so a lot of students didn’t even know that the gazebo existed.
It was a pretty private, quiet place with beautiful scenery, so that was where Yves gave me work to do. There were times when Yves gave me his personal requests, and times when I worked on others’ requests.
Yves’ requests were always well-paying and safe. It made for some good cash.
It was great fun, working and meeting with Yves. It was great, but there was just one thing that I didn’t like.
“Can, can you let me go?”
He stuck to me too much.
Yves always worked with me pulled into his arms. He read his documents with his chin resting on my head.
“No. The weather’s too nice.”
Yves denied my request instantly.
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Shushu, you’re super relaxed. This is a rare opportunity.”
I was definitely feeling incredibly laid-back right now. My body was completely lazy. So I didn’t try to push Yves away and just leaned on him. I was as relaxed as the time that Swan put the spell on me last time.
I had gotten used to Yves’ touchiness at this point. He’d done so too often.
Yves had a strange expression on his face as he watched as I leaned back, then began to stroke my hair like he did his puppy.
He took out his camera to show me a picture.
Inside of the camera he shoved towards me was a tiny orange-haired puppy he had adopted named ‘Shushu’.
“Cute, right?”
“So you actually ended up getting one.”
“Mhm.”
I didn’t know how to respond so I just stayed quiet.
Time time, Yves took out a video.
Inside of the video was a video of Yves teaching Shushu the puppy some tricks.
[Shushu, paw.]
In the video, Yves stretched out his hand towards the fluffy orange dog and was asking for her hand.
Shushu the puppy didn’t seem to understand what he said and just panted with her tongue out, tail wagging furiously.
[Shushu sit.]
Shushu continued to pant, tongue out. Her tail continued to wag furiously.
Shushu stayed still for a moment and, for the first time that I’d seen, did something other than wag her tail or pant.
She sat down. I didn’t know if this was technically a success, but Shushu listened to Yves and sat down.
[Shushu……..]
I could hear Yves’ touched voice from within the video.
[You’re pooping.]
Shushu hadn’t listened to Yves. She had just taken a seat to poop.
Shushu didn’t listen to a single word that Yves said. When Yves tried to pat her, Shushu bit at his fingers. She bit him with a stupid expression on her face, but Shushu was small and weak so there was basically no damage. Shushu, who had a stupid expression on her face as she continued to drool, plopped down on the seat, right on her own poop.
I felt very strange. The feeling, to be more precise, was extremely disgusted and displeased.
That wasn’t the end of Shushu the puppy’s horrible deeds.
After she pooped, she ran here and there without a thought. She stuck herself onto random passerbys and ran straight into excrement on the floor.
The killing point of all this is that her tongue was out and her tail was still wagging through everything.
I could hear Yves’ voice in the video saying things like, “Shushu, where are you going!”, “I’m sorry. My Shushu’s a little aggressive,” “Shushu, you’re a dog, not an anteater. Stop eating ants.” and more.
I felt incredibly strange listening to all this.
As soon as the video ended, Yves smiled brightly as he received my uncomfortable look.
“Super cute, right?”
“……”
“But the original one is better.”
When I glared at him, he smiled impishly as he stretched his hand towards me.
“Shushu, hand.”
“You want a smack, don’t you.”
Yves smiled at my statement.
“Wow, so disappointing. I was so happy when Shushu bit and licked me before. Isn’t she so aggressive?”
Yves whispered into my ear with a salacious smile. His voice lingered in my ear, as if seducing me. I could smell his signature fragrance wafting gently around me.
Don’t confuse yourself, he was talking about the dog.
“Change your puppy’s name right now.”
I said, worrying about Shushu during mating season. I worried about what Yves would say about it. There was a thing called secondhand shame, you know? The wilder the puppy was, the more I felt like I was the one doing everything. Yves smiled when he saw my scowl.
All of the work I had gotten today were simple tasks, so I was able to finish them without much issue. It was hard for me to concentrate because of how lazy I was, but I finished working as I continued leaning on him.
Yves seemed to be in a very happy mood because of it.
When I tried to head back to the dorm after finishing everything, Yves seemed very dejected. Before I went back, he stroked my head dozens of times and then finally let me go when he felt content.
“Shushu, here.”
Yves grabbed me before I left and handed me something.
He had handed me a magical item that, with a press of a button, would give whoever I wanted an electric shock.
Yves’ expression was solemn as he said this.
“Swanhaden is going to come to threaten you soon. Don’t hesitate and use this.”
I wondered what Yves was talking about when he said that.
I had thought that Swan I had become pretty close. But threaten? Was I the only one who though we were close?
Not long after that, I coincidentally saw Hylli and Swanhaden in the middle of a conversation.
Swan was holding a strange pink book and frowning as he read it, and Hylli looked sick of it as he was dragged next to him.
“…so I slam the wall and say the line, ‘You can’t escape me.’ is what it’s saying? What’s that supposed to be? Do you know what they’re trying to do?”
Hylli shook his head at Swan’s question.
“First of all, what do they mean, ‘slam the wall’? Why would that make someone’s heart flutter?”
Then, Swan gently tapped the wall with a fist. He read the book and cursed the author.
He looked confused. This was it? Really?
“Sigh. Can I leave now? I’m a busy person.”
Swan smiled prettily at Hylli when he whined.
“I pretended to be busy. What was your question?”
Hylli immediately switched tactics at Swan’s smile and eagerly helped him.
Hylli read through a page of the pink book and said to Swan.
“I don’t know why you’re interested in something like this, but from what I can tell, this is a show of strength.”
“Showing my strength? It’s not a threat?”
“Exactly. You’re showing off your strength and telling them, “Hey, this is how powerful I am.” That makes sense, right? I don’t know either. Either way, if that’s it then that’s incredibly childish.”
Swan tilted his head at Hylli’s words and frowned.
“Is a show of strength supposed to make your heart flutter?”
“Don’t ask me.”
Hylli also looked confused as he turned to leave.
SLAM!
Swanhaden poured his strength into his palm and slammed the wall next to Hylli. Hylli’s eyes widened in surprise.
There was a small crack on the wall next to Hylli. A bit of the wall crumbled onto the floor.
“How was that. Did that make your heart beat faster?”
Swan asked as he dusted his hands together. Hylli began to speak, eyes still wide open.
“….M-my heart is beating for a l, lot of different reasons.”
“Hmm. I don’t get it, but does that mean it works?”
Swanhaden waved at Hylli in thanks and headed off to wherever he needed to go.
Hylli yelled, “I don’t know who it is, but don’t bully them too much!” at Swan’s retreating figure.
I didn’t know what it was, but Swan seemed to be thinking of different ways to bully other people.
My grip tightened on the magic taser that Yves gave me for protection.
“Cory, I’ve always been curious, but why do you have so many blankets? You have a bunch of different types, too.”
Cory’s eyes blinked open as he stared at the blanket on him as he listened.
“Oh.”
Cory quietly muttered, seemingly understanding my question.
Until now, I had seen dozens of different blankets that Cory owned. Starting from the strawberry blanket, there was also the grape blanket, the pineapple blanket, the apple one, and a ton of other fruit ones. I thought he only had fruit blankets, but he also had vegetable ones too. Who owned a cabbage blanket? Oh, he also had a carrot one, didn’t he?
“You know how I’m a picky eater. And I like eating snacks.”
Cory explained, half asleep. He spoke slowly, probably because he was about to fall back asleep.
“My parents wanted me to get a friendly outlook on healthy foods even if I chose not to eat them, so they gifted me fruit or veggie blankets. And I just ended up having a bunch of them.”
I didn’t know until now, but it was quite a cute reason. It seemed like Cory’s parents’ efforts payed off in the end. Cory did eat a tiny but consistent amount of fruits and vegetables.
He did pinch his nose as he ate vegetable though. No, never mind, he did that when he was younger. Recently, he created a spell that would make vegetables tasteless and scentless. He was eating properly thanks to that.
I asked Cory why he was receiving blankets as gifts instead of any other kind of product in the world. He explained that it was probably because of his tendency to fall asleep in fandom places. It seemed like Cory’s kindness stemmed from his parents.
But it was strange. His parents left him alone to the point of it almost being neglectful, from what I knew. He was always alone during birthdays so I hung out with him, and whenever I called Cory’s home, they never responded.
“Cory, there’s apparently a new delivery place open. Let’s get some food from there once.”
“Oh, I don’t eat that kind of….. frog…… but it was cool……”
“Huh?”
“…..huh? Sorry, what did you say?”
“You’re really sleepy, huh.”
Cory slowly nodded.
“Go back to sleep.”
“…..thanks.”
The room was quiet. I could hear Cory’s quiet breaths as he slept.
Hearing that made me feel relaxed, so I closed my eyes too. I fell asleep almost instantly. It must’ve been a mix of everything that had happened recently, but the nap I had just taken was absolutely perfect.
Cory woke me up before our next class started. He wiped the drool on my cheek and popped a candy in my mouth as he got me ready to head back to class. I was very reluctant about the whole thing.
I was so sleepy and relaxed that I felt like I was floating.
I met up three times a week with Yves. He complained that he never got to see me naturally, so he made it a point to meet with me at least three times a week.
The reason for meeting was a simple request. He asked me if I didn’t want to make some quick cash, and gave me small tasks that I could do even within school.
There was a small gazebo a bit further away from the dorms that was made for students. It was a bit tucked away, so a lot of students didn’t even know that the gazebo existed.
It was a pretty private, quiet place with beautiful scenery, so that was where Yves gave me work to do. There were times when Yves gave me his personal requests, and times when I worked on others’ requests.
Yves’ requests were always well-paying and safe. It made for some good cash.
It was great fun, working and meeting with Yves. It was great, but there was just one thing that I didn’t like.
“Can, can you let me go?”
He stuck to me too much.
Yves always worked with me pulled into his arms. He read his documents with his chin resting on my head.
“No. The weather’s too nice.”
Yves denied my request instantly.
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Shushu, you’re super relaxed. This is a rare opportunity.”
I was definitely feeling incredibly laid-back right now. My body was completely lazy. So I didn’t try to push Yves away and just leaned on him. I was as relaxed as the time that Swan put the spell on me last time.
I had gotten used to Yves’ touchiness at this point. He’d done so too often.
Yves had a strange expression on his face as he watched as I leaned back, then began to stroke my hair like he did his puppy.
He took out his camera to show me a picture.
Inside of the camera he shoved towards me was a tiny orange-haired puppy he had adopted named ‘Shushu’.
“Cute, right?”
“So you actually ended up getting one.”
“Mhm.”
I didn’t know how to respond so I just stayed quiet.
Time time, Yves took out a video.
Inside of the video was a video of Yves teaching Shushu the puppy some tricks.
[Shushu, paw.]
In the video, Yves stretched out his hand towards the fluffy orange dog and was asking for her hand.
Shushu the puppy didn’t seem to understand what he said and just panted with her tongue out, tail wagging furiously.
[Shushu sit.]
Shushu continued to pant, tongue out. Her tail continued to wag furiously.
Shushu stayed still for a moment and, for the first time that I’d seen, did something other than wag her tail or pant.
She sat down. I didn’t know if this was technically a success, but Shushu listened to Yves and sat down.
[Shushu……..]
I could hear Yves’ touched voice from within the video.
[You’re pooping.]
Shushu hadn’t listened to Yves. She had just taken a seat to poop.
Shushu didn’t listen to a single word that Yves said. When Yves tried to pat her, Shushu bit at his fingers. She bit him with a stupid expression on her face, but Shushu was small and weak so there was basically no damage. Shushu, who had a stupid expression on her face as she continued to drool, plopped down on the seat, right on her own poop.
I felt very strange. The feeling, to be more precise, was extremely disgusted and displeased.
That wasn’t the end of Shushu the puppy’s horrible deeds.
After she pooped, she ran here and there without a thought. She stuck herself onto random passerbys and ran straight into excrement on the floor.
The killing point of all this is that her tongue was out and her tail was still wagging through everything.
I could hear Yves’ voice in the video saying things like, “Shushu, where are you going!”, “I’m sorry. My Shushu’s a little aggressive,” “Shushu, you’re a dog, not an anteater. Stop eating ants.” and more.
I felt incredibly strange listening to all this.
As soon as the video ended, Yves smiled brightly as he received my uncomfortable look.
“Super cute, right?”
“……”
“But the original one is better.”
When I glared at him, he smiled impishly as he stretched his hand towards me.
“Shushu, hand.”
“You want a smack, don’t you.”
Yves smiled at my statement.
“Wow, so disappointing. I was so happy when Shushu bit and licked me before. Isn’t she so aggressive?”
Yves whispered into my ear with a salacious smile. His voice lingered in my ear, as if seducing me. I could smell his signature fragrance wafting gently around me.
Don’t confuse yourself, he was talking about the dog.
“Change your puppy’s name right now.”
I said, worrying about Shushu during mating season. I worried about what Yves would say about it. There was a thing called secondhand shame, you know? The wilder the puppy was, the more I felt like I was the one doing everything. Yves smiled when he saw my scowl.
All of the work I had gotten today were simple tasks, so I was able to finish them without much issue. It was hard for me to concentrate because of how lazy I was, but I finished working as I continued leaning on him.
Yves seemed to be in a very happy mood because of it.
When I tried to head back to the dorm after finishing everything, Yves seemed very dejected. Before I went back, he stroked my head dozens of times and then finally let me go when he felt content.
“Shushu, here.”
Yves grabbed me before I left and handed me something.
He had handed me a magical item that, with a press of a button, would give whoever I wanted an electric shock.
Yves’ expression was solemn as he said this.
“Swanhaden is going to come to threaten you soon. Don’t hesitate and use this.”
I wondered what Yves was talking about when he said that.
I had thought that Swan I had become pretty close. But threaten? Was I the only one who though we were close?
Not long after that, I coincidentally saw Hylli and Swanhaden in the middle of a conversation.
Swan was holding a strange pink book and frowning as he read it, and Hylli looked sick of it as he was dragged next to him.
“…so I slam the wall and say the line, ‘You can’t escape me.’ is what it’s saying? What’s that supposed to be? Do you know what they’re trying to do?”
Hylli shook his head at Swan’s question.
“First of all, what do they mean, ‘slam the wall’? Why would that make someone’s heart flutter?”
Then, Swan gently tapped the wall with a fist. He read the book and cursed the author.
He looked confused. This was it? Really?
“Sigh. Can I leave now? I’m a busy person.”
Swan smiled prettily at Hylli when he whined.
“I pretended to be busy. What was your question?”
Hylli immediately switched tactics at Swan’s smile and eagerly helped him.
Hylli read through a page of the pink book and said to Swan.
“I don’t know why you’re interested in something like this, but from what I can tell, this is a show of strength.”
“Showing my strength? It’s not a threat?”
“Exactly. You’re showing off your strength and telling them, “Hey, this is how powerful I am.” That makes sense, right? I don’t know either. Either way, if that’s it then that’s incredibly childish.”
Swan tilted his head at Hylli’s words and frowned.
“Is a show of strength supposed to make your heart flutter?”
“Don’t ask me.”
Hylli also looked confused as he turned to leave.
SLAM!
Swanhaden poured his strength into his palm and slammed the wall next to Hylli. Hylli’s eyes widened in surprise.
There was a small crack on the wall next to Hylli. A bit of the wall crumbled onto the floor.
“How was that. Did that make your heart beat faster?”
Swan asked as he dusted his hands together. Hylli began to speak, eyes still wide open.
“….M-my heart is beating for a l, lot of different reasons.”
“Hmm. I don’t get it, but does that mean it works?”
Swanhaden waved at Hylli in thanks and headed off to wherever he needed to go.
Hylli yelled, “I don’t know who it is, but don’t bully them too much!” at Swan’s retreating figure.
I didn’t know what it was, but Swan seemed to be thinking of different ways to bully other people.
My grip tightened on the magic taser that Yves gave me for protection.
